Stall Avoidance Through Blade Tip Treatment

Stall management is a key component in compressor design and its successful implementation is one key item required in meeting IHPTET compressor performance goals. The work proposed herein would utilize in innovative design concept, in which blade treatment in the form of grooves in the tip region, running between the pressure and suction surfaces, would be utilized to alleviate flow tip/endwall corner patterns leading to compressor stall/surge. Under Phase I a computational study based upon a state-of-the-art Navier-Stokes procedure would be used to assess the concept. An Optional Task is included to extend the computational technique to allow specified regions of high grid resolution, such as are required in the tip region, without unacceptable time or resource penalties. Under Phase II further simulations would be made to optimize groove depth, location, orientation, etc., and the final designs would be verified by experiment.